In our next segment of Local Food, Sustainable Food (Part 4) we will be discussing the importance of supporting local businesses who also happen to grow, cook, and/or serve locally sourced food.
We’ll be covering the following local businesses (a few of my favorites):
Ma’o Organic Farms (Oahu)
Surfing Goat Dairy (Maui)
Prima (a Kailua, Oahu restaurant)
Town (a Kaimuki, Oahu restaurant)
Stay tuned!
English: Local food cartoon created for Transition Town Worthing (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Locally sourced veggies from Ma’o Organic Farms
“Food is the unifying fabric of humanity, connecting us to the earth and each other.” – Ed Kenney, chef/owner at Town Restaurant in Kaimuki.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. Food is what keeps us alive and, with the right food, is what keeps us healthy. If we are going to talk about sustainability we should be talking about food. In the next few installments of Sustainability Studies we are going to talk about food in Hawaii.
The Hawaiian Islands are natural-resource-rich islands. For example, in my backyard alone I have so many papaya trees that I have to give fruit away to keep from wasting any. I don’t even have to water those trees for them to keep producing fruit. On the island of Oahu (possibly not even the island with the most fertile soil in Hawaii) we have a lot of local farms with quality fruits and vegetables, many of them being organic. However, the islands are still heavily reliant on outside food sources. It’s hard to see chickens roaming the roads and beaches on the North Shore yet when I go to buy eggs, the cartons are all stamped with that infamous “mainland” stamp.
What can we do to create a more sustainable food system in Hawaii? It all comes down to going local.
1. Support local farms and fishermen. Go straight to the source whenever possible or sign up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box, delivered full of fresh, seasonally and locally grown fruits and veggies.
2. Grow your own food whenever possible and swap with neighbors if you can to get a good variety.
3. Go to farmer’s markets. Every section of Oahu has a farmer’s market at least once each week. They are often cheaper than buying from the grocery store and are much more fresh and tasty. BONUS: they are usually a good spot to get to know people in your community.
4. When eating out, eat at restaurants that cook with locally sourced, organic foods. Keep a lookout for “farm-to-table” restaurants.
After all, there is nothing more satisfying than the benefits of eating food that you put work into, drinking from a fresh, local coconut, or biting into a ripened apple banana.
English: Papaya (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Do you have any ideas for going local and supporting sustainable food systems? Comment below.
Last month (on my birthday!) I signed up for a free day-long “Tour de Trash” on Oahu. This tour was probably the best thing I could have done to learn about how trash is managed in Hawaii. It’s a very interesting and complex process and one that should be taken seriously. The fact that these tours are offered (for free) is a great step toward educating people about where their trash goes and encourages people to abide by the “THREE R’s”:
REDUCE
RE-USE
RECYCLE
….in that order!
On this tour we visited the Waimanalo Gulch Landfill…
The RRR Recycling Services…
Schnitzer Steel Hawaii…
The H-Power Waste-to-Energy Plant….
and Hawaiian Earth Products composting center…
To sum up the order of how things are processed from when they enter the bin to how they are managed is as follows:
1. Waste is placed in three different bins – Brown bins for trash, Blue bins for recyclables (in Hawaii that’s plastics 1 and 2 and corrugated cardboard), and Green bins for Yard Waste
2. Waste is picked up curbside by county trucks or personally taken to drop-off facilities.
3. Recyclables are taken to RRR Recycling Services where they are sorted and sent for processing. Some recyclables are sent to the mainland U.S. for processing, others are sent as far as China.
4. Yard Waste is sent to Hawaiian Earth Products to be composted into soil and mulch (which is free to those willing to come pick it up!).
5. Trash (non-recylables and non-compostables) are sent to facilities where contents are sifted through to take out any metals to be sold and recycled (Schnitzer Steel Hawaii), burned by H-Power to create energy, and/or (as a last resort) buried in the Waimanalo Gulch landfill near Kapolei.
Obviously the best way to avoid all of the nastiness that comes with handling and managing trash is to REDUCE your level of waste. The next best way is to become educated on how you can help to manage the waste that you do generate in order to help us become a more sustainable Hawaii.
If you are interested in learning more about waste management in Hawaii or taking a free Tour de Trash visit Opala.org.
On the North Shore of Oahu, near the beautiful town of Ka’a’awa, a large chunk of land called Kualoa Ranch extends from the tops of mountains, through valleys, fishponds and beaches, and out toward the reef. Having been there a few times to better familiarize myself with the Native Hawaiian “ahupua’a” sustainability concept, I recognized the Kualoa Ranch t-shirt worn by this University of Hawaii at Hilo student on her blog – Ho’omeheu. She is doing a summer internship at Kualoa Ranch and is documenting her experiences on her blog. I thought her post provided a great student perspective of what it might be like to experience true Hawaiian sustainability field studies. Many mahalos to Wai for letting me post one of her first blog entries! (Read above)
First of all, my orientation days are done and Iʻve been awarded uniform shirts and a fancy magnetic name tag. 🙂
& now to homework…
My internship program required me to write a 2-3 page “personal internship development plan” that addresses what I will be doing at my intern site, some history behind it, and objectives Iʻve set for myself while working there. Be kind,… I havenʻt been in school for the last few weeks and the last English course I took was a semester ago. Haha.
“Personal Internship Development Plan”
Kualoa Ranch Hawaiʻi Inc., at the surface, has become a well known tourist attraction. However the company’s mission to be stewards of the land by education and celebration of its history and culture, brings together a true concept of ahupua’a.
Though not found in each, a loko i’a kuapā was a prominent feature often constructed at the bottom…
View original post 1,137 more words
Sumptuous and soulful, INGREDIENTS HAWAII is a film that captures Hawaii’s farm-to-table movement and is the inspiring portrait of a vibrant food community dedicated to human, environmental and cultural health.
Watch the full film here or watch the shortened version below!
Beach cleanups are a major sustainability effort on Oahu. Almost every weekend there is a beach cleanup being hosted by an organization or group. People who do this everyday on their own do not go unnoticed. Even with all of these cleanups there is still work to be done and significant amounts of trash are being collected from beaches every day. People value the ocean and beaches here on Oahu. If we can keep the beaches clean they’ll not only be here for our children to value and enjoy but they will be healthy ecosystems for the plants and marine life that need them to be sustained.
Looking for a way to get involved in beach cleanups in Hawaii? Visit the following websites for info:
A NOMAD ON THE LOOSE
Welcome to the National Park Service's official blog for America's National Parks in the Pacific. Join us as we EXPLORE our Natural Wonders, CELEBRATE our Unique Cultures & HONOR our Heroes. Aloha, Talofa, & Hafa Adai!
attracting, supporting, and engaging the conscious traveller
Perpetuating the identity of our ancestors
the path less taken
Sustainability Studies 